Chinatown ran along three major streets, Stockton, Dupont
and Kearney, and was about six blocks long. Although they were newcomers
to a foreign land, the Chinese continued to maintan traditional values and
ways as they gradually established their own ethnic ghetto of Chinatown.
Many Chinese immigrants served as factory workers or as other unskilled
laborers, set up ethnically Chinese stores, or started their own businesses,
especially in the restaurant industry. Although there was a Chinese hospital,
the distrust of western things ran so deep that most Chinese only went to
the hospital when death was unavoidable. (Portraits, 69) Many Chinese immigrants
became wealthy and established lucrative companies and businesses after
many years in San Francisco, especially merchants and dealers of ethnic
Chinese goods. Often the wealthy members of Chinatown were able to utilize
their economic standing to gain political power within the de facto government
of their community. (Cherny, San Francisco, 1865-1932).

Wealthy Chinese merchants whose economic power
secured political power for them in the government of Chinatown